London, Thanasis Gavos

Their despair, irritation and fears about the future of the planet are shared by hundreds of climate change scientists in an investigation by the Guardian newspaper.

77% of the 380 members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) approached by the British newspaper (out of a total of 843) believe that the global temperature will increase within the century by at least 2.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial period.

This is an increase that crushes the safety limit that has been set as a goal, that is to say that the increase in temperature should be kept at one and a half degrees Celsius.

Almost half of the respondents even believe that the increase will reach three degrees Celsius.

Only 6% of expert scientists predict restraint to one and a half degrees Celsius.

Many of the respondents speak of a “semi-dystopian” future with crop shortages and famines, conflicts and mass migration, due to heat waves, fires, floods and storms of unprecedented intensity and frequency.

But they stressed that the fight against climate change must continue, as every tenth of a degree of warming averted can reduce suffering for humanity and the planet.